Coaching Update

This is a new section of the website where we provide current coaching information from a mixture of resources this will include gymnastics coaches and guest speakers to provide us with some research, information or tools which will may be useful for you as a coach in your environment.

Using Technology to Enhance your coaching

According to research 65% of people are visual learners. Whilst coaches can only recollect on average 40 % of real time information. What does this mean for coaches? It’s likely that most athletes are not maximizing their learning simply by listening to the coach speak or doing themselves. The majority of gymnasts will prefer to see what they are doing in order to learn. Video analysis, when applied to sports, is key to building a competitive edge including instant video replay, more effective practices, scouting upcoming opponents, injury prevention, and breaking down competitive performance.

Not too long ago, the equipment and technology required to use video analysis was only available to elite and professional level teams. But today, with the lower costs of cameras and the prevalence of smart phones and tablets, video can be captured easily anytime, anywhere. Coaches of all levels and sports can now take advantage of integrating video into their regular practice workflow.

Perhaps the most obvious benefit to using video analysis in practice is the ability to provide immediate feedback to players. Through video, coaches can show and support many areas of athlete development instantly. Individuals are able to actually see what they are doing, paint a picture in their mind and ultimately retain the information better. Practice time is extremely valuable for a coaching staff and the ability to quickly and efficiently provide needed feedback to address errors and confirm successes is essential.

Using video also provides coaches the ability to track progress and individual skill development of their players. By recording video over a period of time and building a library of content, coaches can help to show players how and where they have made improvements. This type of feedback can serve to motivate players, as they are able to see for themselves the progress that has been made. Some coaches will also use videos of professionals to show the players what great form or technique looks like and how they compare. This is another way for players to see visually how they can improve.

The challenge for coaches and gymnasts is the amount and schedule of the feedback, not the feedback itself. It’s really important to identify the 'why' before the 'how' when providing feedback. Ensuring that athletes receive the right feedback at the right time using the most suitable method keeps the learning process moving forward. Too much feedback, too often– creates dependency, which often yields to the adage of ‘paralysis by analyses.

Providing different types of feedback, such as summary feedback, positive or negative bandwidth feedback or gymnast-led feedback can accelerate the learning process and reduce the likelihood that a gymnast becomes dependent on others.

Here are some tools that coaches could potentially use to help provide feedback to their gymnasts:

Hudl Technique app allows coaches to take a new approach to analyzing athlete performance. The app allows you to record any technique to review in slow motion. Which you can then add notes, drawings, measure angles and provide a voiceover feedback for the athlete.

Dartfish is a video solutions provider. The company develops online and offline video software to enable users to view, edit and analyze videos for individual and for team use. A number of governing bodies of sport utilise their services already. The My Dartfish app allows coaches to slow down, drawn on and compare technique.

Video Tagger is a unique video analysis and assessment tool that makes it possible to capture and tag sports performance. Start recording and tap the customisable buttons to tag performance as it happens. The app will record a few seconds either side of the tap. Continue this for the duration of the performance and when finished two video montages will be compiled with the highlights you identified. This is particularly useful when highlighting certain consistent areas in technique or displays.

Bust a Move (BaM) Video Delay - a video delay app to give you instant visual feedback of what you are doing, hands free. It continuously shows you what just happened seconds ago. There is no alternating record or play phase, just continuous playback but with a given delay. This way you get fast and easy accessible video feedback.

Burst Mode captures a variety sports or any fast action where the perfect repetition only lasts for a split second. Analyze frame by frame any fast event like your golf swing or your tennis backhand or simply use it to select the best shot of an unforgettable moment. After your burst session, use the thumbnails view to easily scroll through your frames, identify the interesting regions and select, save or delete exactly what you want.